Iceland parliament moves to dismiss banking chief

[Joanne98]

Iceland's parliament has moved to eject the unpopular chief of the country's central bank, passing a bill Thursday that reorganizes the bank and removes its senior leadership.

David Oddsson, seen by many in Iceland as one of the key players in the collapse of the tiny island nation's economy late last year, will be formally removed Friday when the bill is signed into law. Oddsson has already said his goodbyes to the bank's staff.

The removal of Oddsson, who served as Iceland's prime minister for more than a decade before taking up the powerful economic post, was the top priority of Iceland's new left-leaning coalition government, headed by Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir.

His tenure as prime minister was marked by laissez-faire economic regulation which allowed the country's financial institutions to grow to 10 times the size of the national economy. The massive debts they racked up under his watch eventually led to the collapse of the Icelandic economy once the world credit markets seized up.

The financial meltdown drew rolling protests outside of parliament, at the central bank, and even outside Oddsson's home, eventually forcing the collapse of Iceland's center-right government, led by the Icelandic Independence Party's Geir Haarde.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/02/26/ap6102163.html

[kestrel91316]

1. "His tenure as prime minister was marked by laissez-faire economic regulation".

All I need to know. Icelandic Rebublican policies.